What a year it’s been for Bath & West Community Energy!
Here are some of the highlights.
We won three awards!
We’re proud to have been awarded three awards in 2023!
Two Bath Life Awards for the Civic & Sustainability categories.
The prestigious EUROSOLAR European Solar Prize for Local or Regional Associations.
We installed seven rooftop solar systems
We installed rooftop solar on six schools and one leisure centre.
St Mark’s School, Bath
St John’s School, Midsomer Norton
St Augustine’s College, Trowbridge
St Mary’s School, Timsbury
Sheldon School, Chippenham
Dragonfly Leisure Centre, Midsomer Norton
Sir Bernard Lovell Academy, Oldland Common
Our BWCE Fund gave grants to eleven projects
In January our independent BWCE gave out £31,505 to 11 local community projects helping them to cut carbon emissions, tackle fuel poverty and cut waste.
As a Community Benefit Society we have so far donated £380,000 surplus from our renewables projects to the fund, which has given out 91 grants.
We ran two energy demand research trials
As part of the European funded ReDREAM Project our Flex Community™ has been researching how we can make the most efficient use of renewable energy to meet household electricity demand.
Householders have been helping us to monitor the use of solar energy from our Stowey Ground solar array and to simulate the trading of excess domestic solar electricity between neighbours.
We helped to bring back Green Open Homes (after 9 years)
We took the lead on bringing back Green Open Homes in Bath & North East Somerset in partnership with Bath & North East Somerset Council, Bath Preservation Trust, Buro Happold and Transition Bath.
In November 22 households in Bath and the Chew Valley opened their homes to 788 visits supported by a small army of volunteer stewards.
We launched our new Home Energy Service
Over the Green Open Homes weekend we launched our Home Energy Service.
This is an independent, not-for-profit home energy efficiency service, offering impartial, expert advice on how to make your home more comfortable and sustainable.
We’re looking forward to 2024
We feel that BWCE has achieved a lot in 2023 but we need to do much more in response to the looming climate crisis. We’ve already got a lot lined up for 2024!
- We have more schools & local businesses in the pipeline for rooftop solar installations
- We need to raise a further £800,000 to fund these installations and will be launching a new share offer in January.
- We have community owned solar farms in various stages of development and are actively exploring wind power opportunities.
- The next group of community projects to receive grants from the BWCE Fund will be announced in January.
- We will be working with other organisations to run more Green Open Homes in communities throughout Bath & North East Somerset and will be further developing our Home Energy Service.
We wish you all Happy Christmas and hope that you will consider helping us to achieve our 2024 aspirations as one of your New Year’s Resolutions!
